Postcards to Iowa

Day 4 in Ireland…Galway! What an amazing town, I cannot get over how nice everyone is.  If you stop and look at a map longer than a couple seconds someone asks you if you need help!  I never had any desire to come to Ireland, but that has all changed and I have fallen in love with this country!
Started the day off late …. but got to the visitor center by noon.  There we looked at different tours and options for the area.  I was upset to learn I cannot get a tour down to the Barney Stone (Cork or Killarney)  so looks like I will need to come back soon!!!  (all the tours there are out of Dublin and if I were to take the bus it would take 3 hours + and would really need to stay overnight)…I am voting for coming back for St. Patty’s day 2017!! The visitor center was great, saw two attractions that reminded me of Iowa (Field of Dreams and Heritage trail)

Also saw a TK Maxx on the way that looked liek TJ MAXX but with a K instead of a J…interesting!
After deciding on our tours and events for the week we ventured around Eyre Square (closed off area with shops and no cars!  Charming and great restaurants, shops and street performers)

My Irish hat for the week (and to bring back for St. Patty’s Day) it kept the rain off and made me look like a local.  two people asked me for directions!

As we were walking through town we saw these cute two street preforming below.  Notice the SEATTLE street sign in the back!!!  Later we learned that Seattle and Galway are SISTER CITIES!!!  There is a marker in Seattle (below) and also a marker in Galway that presents this fact which was established in 1986!!!  It is a lot like Seattle (weather and geographically, sans the mountains).

We ate lunch at this AMAZING restaurant, Cookes.  I had my first official Fish and Chips (WOW it was delicious, so different than in the states) and my dad had Lamb Stew and my mom had Seafood Chowder, both could not say enough good things about the meal.  Perfect place for lunch after shopping and to gear up for some walking around town.
We took refuge from the pouring rain in a beautiful cathedral that turned out to be Galway Cathedral (more here).

As the rain started to slow we ventured back to our apartments, a minor detour on the campus of University of Ireland and we were home. A successful and fun 15,000 step day! We had dinner with Luke, Gabe and Laura and look forward to breakfast with them tomorrow.